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my day to day notes, bits and bobs – mostly IT related!

Month: July 2011

Alastair Otter is a senior journalist at MyBroadband, and focuses on software and hardware. He has a particular love for Open Source Software (OSS)…

It‚Äôs taken more than 25 years to develop but the Hurd operating system may soon be released.

It‚Äôs been more than 25 years in the making and yet most people have never heard of it. Now the Free Software Foundation‚Äôs Hurd operating system may finally get to show what it has to offer.

A little history: decades ago Richard Stallman began work on a completely free (as in freedom) Unix-like operating system. Frustrated by the increasingly proprietary software world around him, Stallman set about to rewrite the tools and applications that made up a typical Unix operating system.

To his credit he worked tirelessly over the years and developed a huge amount of software. The only problem was that he didn‚Äôt have a kernel, the bit that runs at the heart of an operating system and coordinates all the tools and applications.

Stallman had started developing a kernel for his operating system which he called Hurd, but it was never quite finished.

Fortunately, completely independently of Stallman, Linus Torvalds had developed the Linux kernel while at Helsinki university. Torvalds had the kernel and Stallman many of the applications, which made for a natural relationship. The result was Linux (or GNU/Linux as Stallman prefers calling it).

Motivated by his passion for real free software, Stallman never gave up on his dream of finishing Hurd and creating his entirely free operating system and continued to work on it. Now it looks likely that he may yet achieve that.

In a posting on the GNU Hurd website earlier this month, the Hurd development team said that it has made significant progress on the operating system. So much so that it said that there was ‚Äúa real plan to release a Hurd variant of Debian with their next major release, Wheezy‚Äù.

Debian is a community developed version of Linux that is most closely aligned with Stallman‚Äôs ideals as it rejects software that is not completely free.

Debian is also notorious for only issuing new releases when everyone is satisfied. Which usually means new releases are often delayed well beyond their expected date. Nevertheless, Debian‚Äôs Wheezy release is expected in late 2012 or 2013 and is likely to include a Hurd version.

GNU Hurd Screenshot

That doesn‚Äôt mean users can‚Äôt already try out a test version of Hurd to see what progress has been made. GNU Hurd‚Äôs Samuel Thibault has produced a Debian GNU Hurd CD set which includes a graphical installer. That image can be downloaded for testing now. There is also a prepared virtual image which can be used for basic testing.

Alternatively the Debian project has set up a dedicated section on its site to deal with Debian/Hurd issues. There are instructions on that page to help users install Debian Hurd for the first time.

Hurd is unlikely to replace Linux, or any other OS, in the near future, but after 25 years of development it is certainly a step forward, no matter how small.

The Internet is about to hit its fourth major shift in server architecture.

The early days were powered by simple Perl applications. As the dotcom hit, Java application servers running on highend UNIX machines powered the majority of the web and created a multibillion dollar per year industry. In the 2000s, scripting languages such as PHP and Ruby running on cloud based Linux infrastructure have spawned massive growth at companies like Rackspace and Amazon with its Amazon Web Services service.¬†Each of these shifts in server architecture brought greater efficiencies and the ability to more cheaply deliver more sophisticated Internet services. We are now on the verge of hitting another inflection point with JavaScript running on the server.

JavaScript came onto the scene in 1995 as the browser language in Netscape‚Äôs Navigator browser and was primarily used to implement simple user interface elements such as menus. With the wave of Web 2.0 companies building out JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and various HTML5 extensions of late, JavaScript is becoming increasingly sophisticated and capable of delivering highly interactive web and mobile-optimized sites comparable to Flash sites. As websites become more and more interactive, an increasing amount of business logic and data processing is starting to happen in the browser with JavaScript rather than on the server.

The growing up of JavaScript is leading to a collision of sorts between the client and the server. Why use one scripting language on the client, and then a different scripting language on the server? PHP and Ruby programmers are constantly dynamically building DOMs, the document object model for a browser page that JavaScript innately understands. Programmers also have to transform data in and out of JSON (the JavaScript Object Notation) so that it can be understood by browsers. All of this work translating between languages causes errors and bugs, and forces unnecessary communication between front-end and back-end developers. Each language has it stakeholders claiming better frameworks and whathaveyou, but at some point the pain of translation outweighs these benefits. Especially when you consider that JavaScript programmers are widely available, and Ruby programmers are virtually impossible to find.

Imagine if you were building a house and the architects spoke only Japanese and the builders spoke only French. There is a lot of time and energy spent handling communication and fixing miscommunication between the two parties. The same problems happen when you use two different languages to build a web application.

Even worse, when code is written, programmers have to decide whether it is going to run on the browser or on the server. Things as simple as validating a phone number need to be decided before a programmer can start, and be assigned to either the front-end JavaScript programmers or the back-end PHP, Java or Ruby programmers. Once the code is written, if for whatever reason it needs to be moved from client to server or vice versa, it needs to be rewritten from scratch.

The fissure between client and server is even starting to hit large corporate websites that have barely budged toward scripting languages from Java. When you go to your bank‚Äôs website or favorite e-commerce website, chances are that it looks and works very much like it did 10 years ago. This is because most corporations perform all of the processing of a website on their servers. When you click on something on a webpage, it goes to the server, which creates a whole new webpage and sends it to your browser. While this is not the most efficient way to serve a website, it is definitely the most efficient way to create a website inside a corporation, since the programmers do not have to learn all the intricacies of the various browsers and can simply program in Java, the favored language for corporate websites.

The sudden preponderance of mobile and tablet devices has created a sudden rupture in the way that corporations serve their websites. It is very slow and cumbersome to completely refresh a web page every time a user does something on a phone with its relatively slow web browser and connection. Now corporate web applications need to be upgraded to HTML5 and be able to update themselves dynamically, just like the modern web applications offered by Google and all of the Web 2.0 startups.

There have been various attempts to productize JavaScript on the server over the years. Netscape acquired LiveWire‚Äôs JavaScript server and shipped it in 1996 but then quickly replaced it with the Java and C++ based Kiva Application Server in 1998. Aptana attempted to provide hosted JavaScript servers and ended up selling its development tools to Appcelerator.

It all makes sense when you think about it. It took many years for scripting languages to be considered serious web languages and for significant client logic to be implemented on the browser. But now this is the normal way to create an Internet application. Why code in two different scripting languages, one on the client and one on the server? It‚Äôs time for one language to rule them all.

Peter Yared is the VP/GM of Social at¬†Webtrends. He has founded four e-commerce and marketing infrastructure companies that were acquired by Sun, VMware, TigerLogic and Webtrends. You can follow him at¬†@peteryared.

CIO
‚ÄîSecurity‚ÄÇMoving money from a personal investment account can be a complex process involving trips to the bank, fees and paper forms designed to ensure compliance with regulations. And it can be full of stress, because such transactions often occur during a life milestone, such as retirement.

The Vanguard Group, which offers consumers retirement, college savings and other investment accounts, has simplified this multistep transaction process using biometric voice-verification software. The project, which earned a CIO 100 Award, lets customers access their accounts and complete transactions over the phone, using their voices as passwords. ‚ÄúThe ultimate security measure is something you are,‚Äù says Vanguard CIO Paul Heller. ‚ÄúVoice is actually the most secure‚Äù form of identification, he adds, because each person‚Äôs voiceprint is unique.

John Marcante, an executive with Vanguard‚Äôs retail services group, says transactions that once took three weeks can now be completed in three minutes. Previously, Vanguard employees would scan and verify paperwork for 96 types of transactions. That process requires a phone conversation. Now 70 percent of transactions can be completed using biometric authentication.

The system uses software from Nuance that captures individuals‚Äô vocal inflections and other details, making it more secure than a plain recording. To enroll in the service, customers call Vanguard‚Äôs 800 number and record the phrase, ‚ÄúAt Vanguard, my voice is my password.‚Äù The verification system captures three voice samples and sends the customer a confirmation email. When the customer clicks on the link in the email, the service is activated. The process takes about a minute. The service is available on mobile or landline telecommunications networks, though Vanguard hopes to offer it for VoIP calls as well.

Vanguard is rolling out the verification system to its high-net-worth customers this year and will offer it to all customers in 2012. Marcante says teamwork between IT and business leaders made the project successful. Vanguard had tested biometrics a decade ago, but the disconnect between IT, research and business leaders was too great for the project to move forward. Marcante says this time, Vanguard realized that ‚Äúinnovation comes from an overlap of multiple disciplines.‚Äù

No Line at the Register

Mobile Devices‚ÄÇTo alleviate long lines on crazy shopping days like Black Friday, CIO 100 winner Gap deployed the iPod Touch as a mobile point of sale (POS) system in more than 100 Old Navy stores. Using the devices, employees can ring up merchandise from anywhere in the store.

By creating an extra register when the regular ones are occupied, Gap says the iPod Touch will reduce the number of customers who abandon their purchases when lines are too long. The device connects to a store‚Äôs POS system to look up merchandise and prices, conduct credit card transactions and process gift card purchases. The devices can be connected to bar code scanners to scan merchandise tags, and to wireless printers to provide receipts.

Skybot Scheduler 2.1 includes a new Getting Started section on the home page to let users license the product, set up connected servers, create new jobs, configure their email server, and see the status of their enterprise from one page. The release also includes multiple enhancements to the installation process for AIX and Linux host and agent servers.

Skybot Scheduler provides tools to manage tasks and processes across multi-platform enterprises. Skybot Software is continually adding new features and enhancing existing functionality for Skybot Scheduler. Recent new features include Job Flow Diagrams, Dashboard, reports, and forecasts.

Heartland Payment Systems announced its latest offering for higher education institutions with the debut of WƒíPA. Employing cloud computing, WƒíPA is designed to eliminate an institution‚Äôs dependence on equipment purchases or leases, hardware and software licenses and maintenance and server integration fees.

The University of West Florida is working with Heartland to install WƒíPA on its campus. Kiosks will be available at various locations across campus, including the UWF Student Center, libraries, computer labs, residence halls and classrooms.

With WƒíPA, students can upload documents for printing wherever Internet service is provided and then print them at WƒíPA kiosks, which can be placed anywhere on campus to meet the needs of the school community. And when not in use for printing, the kiosks also double as a campus communications tool – displaying announcements, emergency notifications/alerts, sporting event schedules and other types of promotion.

WƒíPA supports multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, Linux and UNIX, and offers students the option to print their documents in black and white or color, as well as double-sided prints.¬†¬†

THE latest iteration of Apple’s operating system update bores rather than roars, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Dubbed “Lion”, it is the eighth major release in Apple’s decade-plus embrace of Unix. It’s a mature OS and so one might expect few obvious changes. Lion brings Apple’s desktop closer to its iOS mobile operating system both in form and function, whilst a new version of iOS is being finalised for release in third quarter.

Apple enumerates “250+” new features, but, in the long and ignoble traditions of software marketing, that is more than a little tendentious: most are related to each other, have limited utility to most users or represent something more akin to tweaks to remove minor quirks and irritations. Some commenters consider the changes to OS X’s address book and calendar programs a step backwards in sophistication and user interface design. Babbage is appalled by the cartoonish interaction used for the peer-to-peer simplified file sharing called AirDrop: it works well, but looks absurdly out of place.

Instead, most of the upgrades are under the bonnet, as with the previous release, Snow Leopard (10.6). Cleaning out crusty code and speeding up operations has a more significant effect on a user’s perception of an operating system’s power than anything else, including fancy graphical flourishes. Stability, consistency and efficiency are what veteran users crave; the same traits impress those new to computers.

The marquee features that Apple advertises in Lion are mostly adapted from its massively successful iOS, which powers mobile devidces like the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. Babbage has watched many people otherwise uninterested or actively hostile to a computer with a mouse or trackpad pick up an iPhone or iPad and immediately get cracking. The system’s immersive nature rewards exploration, and requires little figuring out.

In the same vein, Lion has several programs and changes that obviate the need for someone who never worked in an office in the 1960s to navigate through analogies of the experience on a computer. Why, in 2011, do we still drag little paper icons onto little folder icons? The speed and ease of indexing the full contents of files in modern operating systems should obviate the need for filing. Similarly, treating files, folders, programs and other items as the same kind of thing‚Äîshowing them all as icons within folders or on a desktop‚Äîconfuses both new and long-time basic users no end.

Lion includes applications called “Launchpad” and “Mission Control” to provide simplified access to everything at once. Launchpad shows a list of apps that closely resembles the home screens in iOS. Mission Control is far less well thought out, combining a display of all open applications, their respective windows and multiple virtual desktop spaces. The allusion to rocket science is, unfortunately, apt.

Alongside the streamlined apps are features available throughout the interface: multi-touch gestures through a built-in trackpad or external Magic Trackpad or Magic Mouse, full-screen applications, automatic save and automatic resume. These mimic the feel of an iOS device without requiring a touchscreen.

In a typical sequence, one might pinch four fingers together, and bring up Launchpad. Click an app’s icon‚Äîdon’t double click‚Äîand the program launches. The program fills the screen, hiding the desktop interface as well as windows from any other open programs. Any files open when the app was last quit are reopened. As one works, changes are saved invisibly and frequently. If the power goes out (or the user restarts the computer without quitting any programs) Lion will re-opens all programs and documents previously in use after it has booted up again. Another feature, Versions, will also make snapshots of documents in progress, storing them using Apple’s Time Machine backup software.

Just as Lion moves closer to iOS, iOS will soon mostly detach itself from the Macintosh and desktop ecosystem to which it has been tethered since its launch. It remains baffling that Apple’s mobiles must be linked to a computer running a copy of iTunes in order that users may manage their files. Google got it mostly right, using its cloud infrastructure to allow an Android phone to be set up largely with a single login.

iOS 5, announced in June alongside Lion, will allow owners to perform all tasks wirelessly, although a USB tether will still be available for those wish to cling on to the umbilical. The new iCloud service will be the conduit for backups of user data and calendar and contact syncs, as well as storage for third-party apps.

With the cord cut, Apple removes a bar to the adoption of its mobile devices in emerging markets, in which computers may be far scarcer or too far out of date to run the latest version of iTunes. In its most recent financials call, the firm spoke at length about growth in the Chinese market. That is good for Apple, and possibly also good for Chinese consumers. After all, an iPad is cheaper than a conventional desktop, and could bring a relatively powerful computer within reach of those who cannot afford a more traditional machine.

Campus Solutions(SM) division is driving efficiencies at higher
education institutions nationwide with the introduction of WEPA(TM) —
a wireless printing solution. Cost-effective and turnkey, WEPA
eliminates an institution’s dependence on equipment purchases/leases,
hardware and software licenses and maintenance and server integration
fees, while offering its student community enhanced convenience and
cutting-edge printing technology.

Employing cloud computing, WEPA enables students to upload documents for
printing wherever Internet service is provided. Printing kiosks can be
placed virtually anywhere on campus to meet the needs of the school
community — students are no longer confined to computer labs or
libraries. Once registered, students simply visit their preferred WEPA
kiosk, log in and select a method of payment to print their documents.
Supporting multiple platforms (Windows, Mac, Lenox and Unix), WEPA
offers students the option to print their documents in black and white
or color, as well as double-sided prints.

“Given the rapid adoption of cloud-based applications and data storage,
we wanted to help take campuses to the next level with cloud-based
printing services. Offering tremendous benefits to higher education
institutions, WEPA streamlines operations and decreases costs, while
simultaneously delivering enhanced convenience to its student body,”
said Fred Emery, vice president and general manager of Heartland Campus
Solutions. “We’re thrilled to partner with WEPA to offer this advanced
technology to campuses across the country.”

WEPA kiosks can also double as a campus communications tool. When not in
use for printing, the touchscreen monitors can be used to display
announcements, emergency notifications/alerts, sporting event schedules
and other types of promotion.

“Research has shown that the key challenges facing universities today
are saving money, increasing employee productivity and enhancing student
education through advanced technologies,” said Frank Griffith, president
and chief executive officer of WEPA. “WEPA was designed with these
priorities in mind, and it’s been a pleasure to work with companies like
Heartland to aid higher education institutions in streamlining their
operations, reducing costs and improving student satisfaction.”

The University of West Florida (UWF) is currently working with Heartland
to install WEPA on its campus. Kiosks will be available at various
locations across campus, including the UWF Student Center, libraries,
computer labs, residence halls and classrooms.

“We are very excited to be the first school working with Heartland to
implement the WEPA printing system. We believe now is the right time to
implement such a convenient solution that offers quality and speed, and
seamlessly ties in with our university’s sustainability efforts —
offering the ability to duplex print,” said Joyce Hughes, manager, ID
Card Office of the University of West Florida. “The opportunities WEPA
will provide our students should be nothing but positive.”

Offering universities a 100 percent purchasing reduction in printer
hardware and supplies, WEPA requires no equipment purchases or
installations. The system also easily integrates with the Heartland
OneCard, a multi-functional campus card program that can be used for
identification, off-campus purchases, financial aid disbursement and
work study payments, library checkouts, building/parking access, dining
services and vending — among many other applications.

,
the fifth largest payments processor in the United States, delivers credit/debit/prepaid
card processing, gift
marketing and loyalty programs, payroll,
check
management and related business solutions to more than 250,000
business locations nationwide. A FORTUNE 1000 company, Heartland
is the founding supporter of The Merchant Bill of Rights, a public
advocacy initiative that educates merchants about fair credit and debit
card processing practices. The company is also a leader in the
development of end-to-end encryption technology designed to protect
cardholder data, rendering it useless to cybercriminals. For more
information, please visit HeartlandPaymentSystems.com,
MerchantBillOfRights.org,
CostOfABurger.com
and E3secure.com.

About WEPA

WEPA (pronounced wee-pah) is an acronym for Wireless Everywhere Print
Anywhere. Providing the most extensive, reliable and convenient cloud
printing network in the world, WEPA enables anyone with an Internet
connection to upload their documents and print them anywhere a WEPA
kiosk is located. For more information, please visit WEPANow.com.

A few years ago, I attended an Intel Labs presentation and one of the more interesting segments was on a technology it was quietly developing for large network switches. Intel argued that it could do to the very expensive and high-margin switch business what it did to UNIX servers over the last two decades to cut costs dramatically.

¬†

Apparently, Intel has now started executing on that strategy with the acquisition of Fulcrum Microsystems, a fabless semiconductor and related software vendor, targeting low-cost, high-performance, high-end switches.

This will be good news for HP, but bad news for Cisco. Let me explain.

Cisco: The Sun of Switch Vendors

Sun was the big loser in the move to x86 and lower-cost servers. It was also the big beneficiary of large-scale UNIX servers that cut into the mainframe and mid-range computer market like a hot knife through butter. However, ironically, it was IBM, HP and newcomer Dell that benefited from the move to x86, and Sun first tried to fight the move and then, after it was too late, tried to embrace it, eventually failing and being bought by Oracle.

At the core of this problem was the reality that Sun didn‚Äôt want to sacrifice its high-margin products for low-margin competitors and failed to recognize, until too late, that the company didn‚Äôt really get a vote. The market was moving with or without Sun, which, ironically, was the same difficult decision Sun had presented to IBM that contributed to IBM‚Äôs stumble in the late 1980s. (As a side comment, it is really interesting how the technology market repeats cycles and how many technology companies treat each similar cycle as if it were a surprisingly new and unique event. Kind of like being surprised when the sun comes up every morning.)

So the cycle we are talking about here is one where a chip vendor, traditionally Intel (though it is happening to some extent to Intel by ARM in smart devices), comes in and finds a way to commoditize a high-margin business. The dominant provider stumbles because it can‚Äôt adjust to the new lower-margin reality.Clearly that would hurt Cisco, but why would that help HP?

HP‚Äôs Advantage

HP may not be alone here, as I expect Dell to get on this bandwagon relatively quickly as well. HP is a challenging vendor having bought 3COM as a response to Cisco‚Äôs entering the server business and HP has been cutting into Cisco‚Äôs market share and profits significantly. In fact, the coming 6,500 layoffs that Cisco has announced appears to be collateral damage from Cisco‚Äôs decision to change HP from a partner to a competitor. (Oracle should pay attention as these outcomes tend to come several years after the trigger event.)

HP is already on a commoditization path and is using that as its primary weapon against Cisco. HP is already a close partner with Intel on x86 and Itanium so it wouldn‚Äôt be hard for them to embrace this new Fulcrum technology quickly and even more aggressively cut prices in order to cut even more deeply into Cisco‚Äôs market share and profits. Dell is on a similar total provider path and it seems likely it will see the blood in the water as well and move on the opportunity if only as a competitive hedge against HP. But Cisco would be the vastly easier and more attractive target given its relative size in this market.

¬†

The end result, if Cisco didn‚Äôt aggressively move on the same opportunity to avoid Sun‚Äôs mistake, would be a major change in market makeup and power. Though it would be incredibly ironic if Oracle (assuming it is still around) ended up buying Cisco at the end of this cycle as it did Sun, though I think that is unlikely.

Wrapping Up

When Intel enters a market, as Sun learned against a vastly weaker Intel, it tends to change the market dynamic. Long-time Intel partners like HP and Dell should benefit from this move and the current dominant player, Cisco, will be put at risk by it. The question now is whether Cisco has learned from Sun‚Äôs failure and can avoid it or whether it will repeat the same mistakes. As noted above, the interesting thing is that executives don‚Äôt seem to want to learn by watching others and seem to enjoy making these mistakes themselves. That doesn‚Äôt bode well for Cisco, but would be a nice present for Intel, HP and Dell assuming I‚Äôve read this right.

Version¬†1.5 of the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) has been released. It is used in the printing process in Mac OS¬†X and in many Linux distributions and has been largely driven by Apple, since it acquired the rights to CUPS in 2007.

The CUPS library now offers basic support for SSL/TLS X.509 certificates and an updated PDF filter. For security reasons, filters and backends are no longer allowed to have group write privileges. The new version determines user-specific settings exclusively from the ~/.cups/client.conf and ~/.cups/lpoptions files, support for which was introduced in version 1.2 ‚Äì ~/.cupsrc and ~/.lpoptions are no longer consulted. The print scheduler now supports operations such as “cancel-jobs”, “cancel-my-jobs” and “close-jobs”. The HP-GL/2 filter and SCSI backend have also been removed.

An overview of other changes can be found in the changes.txt file in the CUPS 1.5 source code (direct download) archive; documentation is also provided. CUPS is licensed under version¬†2 of the GNU General Public License (GPLv2), with exceptions for Apple operating systems and the OpenSSL toolkit.